environmental impact assessment and environmental risk assessment have overlapping proceedures . discuss?

Question

Environmental impact assessment and Environmental risk assessment have overlapping proceedures which are mutually complementary to each other.Discuss

Answer 1

A risk assessment has three elements:

1. Identifying sources of risk,
2. calculating the probability of an event happening, and
2. assessing the consequences.

An environmental impact assessment provides the data needed to determine the consequences but not the sources of risk or the probability of an event happening.

Answer 2

An environmental assessment tells you if a release has or has not occurred in the area that you are assessing. It will involve the collection of soil, groundwater or air samples for submittal for laboratory analysis.

A risk assessment is conducted prior to anything being built on an undeveloped property. For instance, if the government were to propose to build a 36" pipeline from Texas to Georgia, they would conduct a risk assessment to determine the environmental impact of the installation of the pipeline.

After the pipeline is built and there is a release, the environmental assessment is conducted to determine the impact to the groundwater, soil, habitat, and air.